An informant is someone who helps your autism assessor understand how you experience the world. They share their knowledge of you to support the assessment process.
The information they provide gives our team a fuller picture of your strengths and differences and supports a clinically robust autism assessment.
How to choose an informant
Your informant should be someone who knows you well. Ideally, this is someone who knew you well during childhood and knows information related to your early development, as autism assessments look at both your current and past experiences.
By nominating an informant, you are giving your formal consent for them to take part in your autism assessment.
Please be assured that your informant does not need to understand neurodivergence to be part of your assessment.
Here are your best options:
- Best option:
Someone who knew you well during childhood, is older than you, and still has regular contact with you.
Examples: A parent or caregiver
- Good alternative:
Someone who has known you well for at least three years, sees you a couple of times a week, and ideally has lived with you for an extended period of time.
Examples: A partner, sibling, or close friend
- If no suitable informant is available: You may act as your own informant, although it's preferable to have someone else act as your informant where possible.
If you choose to act as your own informant, this means you'll have two sessions with us:
- One to give information about your past and current experiences.
- One for observation.
Don't worry - we'll never turn you away if you can't find an informant.
Once you've chosen an informant:
- Ask if they're happy to take part in your assessment.
- Check if they're available for a three-hour online session.
- Let us know who you've chosen.
If your informant is not a parent or caregiver, we'll ask you to complete an informant questionnaire as well. You are also welcome to complete an informant questionnaire if a parent/caregiver has completed one. This helps us understand your childhood from your perspective.
If you’re unsure who to choose or need support, email us at help@problemshared.net and a team member will talk it through with you. The sooner you get in touch, the more smoothly we can support you.
What does the informant session involve?
Your informant will have an online session with ProblemShared clinician:
- The session lasts around three hours.
- It usually takes place at the same time as your observation session, but with a different clinician.
- It will be a semi-structured interview.
We have a partner article that covers how to be the best autism informant possible if you’d like to share it with your choice of informant, too.
Informant questionnaires
All informants are asked to complete a questionnaire (you can also ask other suitable people to complete one of these questionnaires). This includes questions about your:
- Early childhood.
- Developmental milestones.
- Medical and school history.
- Social and emotional experiences.
- Current presentation.
Whoever completes the questionnaire, it is really helpful if they provide some examples and details where relevant.
Who can complete an informant questionnaire?
- A parent or caregiver.
- A partner.
- A close friend.
- A sibling.
- You (especially if you are your own informant).
If your informant didn’t raise you or know you in childhood, please complete your own copy of the informant questionnaire. This is in addition to the client pre-assessment questionnaire.
If you are going to be your own informant for your assessment, if possible, please ask someone else who knows you well to complete an informant questionnaire. This helps us to consider your strengths and differences from someone else’s perspective and supports a clinically robust assessment.
You can download and send out up to three copies of the questionnaire, if more than one person is suitable to contribute to your assessment.
Ideally, both a caregiver and a partner or close friend would complete an informant questionnaire.
How to complete the questionnaire
- Download the Informant Questionnaire from your client dashboard.
- Share it with your informant(s).
- Ask them to fill it in and send it back to you.
- Re-upload it to your client dashboard with your other pre-assessment forms.
Make sure the person's name and their relationship to you is clearly written on the questionnaire.
How to ask someone to be your informant
Asking someone to be your informatn might feel a little daunting. Here are some tips that may help:
- Pick a good moment: Choose a quiet and private time to talk when you both feel calm and unhurried.
- Learn about the process: Understanding how the assessment works will help you explain what you're asking them to do.
- Be clear about their role: Let them know how important their input is and how their support could make a difference.
- Give them time: They may need space to think about it - that's Okay!
Let us know if you have any questions - we're here to help. Email: help@problemshared.net
Please visit our autism assessments pages for adults and for children for more information about our service.
